Son, SA orcid.org/0000-0002-3045-7939 (2022) Watching North Korea from the sky: remote sensing and documenting human rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Political Geography, 92. 102525. ISSN 0962-6298
Abstract
For organisations committed to documenting human rights abuses in North Korea, gathering data is an ongoing challenge. Faced with the lack of access to the country, as well as the problems inherent in verifying testimonies from North Korean escapees, some organisations have turned to hybrid methodologies, including pairing remote sensing (RS) technologies with testimonial data to better understand the people, places and institutions associated with human rights violations. In the case of North Korea, to date, remote sensing has been used primarily to monitor nuclear weapons and missile development sites. This work has at times sparked controversy, given the scope for analytical error and the high stakes associated with flawed analysis. Against this backdrop, this article discusses the application of remote sensing to augment human rights abuse investigations and calls for greater attention to the potential of remote sensing data to both assist in eliciting information in research interviews, and to generate data that may be used to support the pursuit of accountability for alleged violations of international law. Specifically, it considers the work of an ongoing project developed in South Korea using satellite imagery and Geographic Information Systems technology together with witness testimonies to document sites of state-led killings and burials in North Korea. The paper cites advantages to be had from developing hybrid methods of data-gathering in this context and describes some of the key methodological considerations involved, as well as the possible applications of the data in seeking justice and remedy in the future.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: | |
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2021 Elsevier. This is an author produced version of a paper subsequently published in Political Geography. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. Article available under the terms of the CC-BY-NC-ND licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). |
Keywords: | Activism; Geographic Information Systems; Human rights; North Korea; Remote sensing; Satellite |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > School of East Asian Studies (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 23 Nov 2022 16:18 |
Last Modified: | 23 Oct 2023 00:13 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Elsevier BV |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1016/j.polgeo.2021.102525 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:193653 |